Just picked up a Gen3 Glock 20. In reading/researching hunting loads I have noticed that most people seem to upgrade the factory recoil spring.
Is this necessary or recommended or is the factory spring ok for most hunting loads.
If it needs to be replaced, which weight? There seems to be several available.
Would appreciate feedback for experience.
Welcome to the forum Capt Gary;
If you'll go to the home page of this forum and find "Factory 10mm Ammo". You'll find a "10mm factory master sheet" OP right at the top. In that spreadsheet you'll find advertised and actual tested velocities of just about all the commercially available 10mm cartridges you'll find for your new Glock 20. It's a fountain of real world information.
As to your question about upgrading factory recoil spring... Not absolutely necessary BUT very good idea if you plan to shoot much of the hot stuff referenced in red and orange (energy). The Glock factory spring really intended for mild to lite (similar to 40 cal) loads. For the wild stuff (Underwood, Buffalo Bore, etc) a 20lbs to 22lbs recoil spring highly advisable. It'll help dampen the recoil for you and the firearm & hold the slide into battery for extra milliseconds which will help reduce bullet velocity deviation.
I use the 22lbs recoil spring when shooting hot or even warm factory ammo and never had a bit of trouble with my Gen 3. I drop the factory spring back in when shooting the mild stuff.
Regards and happy hunting.
I do the same as Shadow and have had excellent results.
I put a 22lb spring in, first thing. I dont switch out, even when shooting lighter loads. I rarely, if ever, have any kind of FTFs. My advice is, if you're planning on running hot loads, put a heavier spring in, and forget about it until 5-6K rounds when its time to replace it.